The mayor of PaiportaMaribel Albalat confirmed that she called the government delegate of the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, on October 29 around seven in the afternoon, to warn her that her municipality – in the zero zone of the DANA – was flooded due to of the overflow of the DANA. Magro River. He told him, according to Albalat, that the people “were not prepared for this and that a lot of people were going to diewho was already dying.
He did not communicate with the Generalitat, he said this Thursday in an interview with TVE’s “La Hora de la 1”, because he had contact with Bernabé and she guaranteed him that she would transfer him . “I don’t know the communications between them,” he added. “Then I learned that they were meeting,” he said in reference to the CECOPI meeting from which the late decision came – at 8:12 p.m. – to send the deputies. an alert to the population via cell phones.
Before that, Albalat had also alerted in the media about what was happening in Paiporta, devastated by floods. According to the SER, the Government delegate called three times during the day to the Minister of the Interior, Salomé Pradas, to offer all the resources. Pradas requested that the UME be mobilized in Utiel in a fourth telephone communication around two in the afternoon.
“It will be up to the courts to decide responsibilities. I didn’t want to address that because I still have people without electricity, who I have to help every day, who don’t have water. To have health problems and unopened streets. There is no point in knowing now who is responsible. In the future yes, because we will have to see what happened so that it doesn’t happen again. But I’m going day by day and I can’t dedicate myself to that,” Albalat said.
Although things are improving, eight days later the situation is still “very chaotic” in the city. They need a lot of machines and more equipment to dispose of personal belongings, trash and debris. The mayor thanked the solidarity donations from all over Spain. Concerning the volunteers, he asked that they come organized, protected and equipped with tools. “I don’t dare tell them not to come,” he said.
